The existence of these planets is rarely made obvious but there are many of them throughout the Imperium. Travel to these worlds is forbidden except for the most well-informed and heavily armed expeditions, and even then only with a very good reason. ......or my little place to rant, post, pic and what have you about gaming,painting,models,general nerdery and such.

Friday, September 5, 2014

D&D to the 5th and 700th

Holy crap 700th post!!! What to talk about? Well
how about this?

Played the new 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons
and it was a damn good time!

We ran the first part of the starter set this past weekend.
We grabbed the pre-generated characters and after a few minutes we had decided.
We had a human fighter with Lord Douglas of Tripsy
Stumble Manor, Thoradin the nuke dropping cleric and
PannMoonwhisper the soon to
be very flamboyant elven mage.

We ran over our sheets and off we went to deliver some
sundries. Along the way we were ambushed by goblins. After we barely survived
that encounter we went looking to find them. That lead us to a cave full of the
filthy beasts, which we cleared out and found a modicum of treasure. This was
not so easy for some of the party as our nobleman kept falling into pits or down
sloping hallways. There was also an issue of missing against peons, but we hit
the monsters when it counted.

This game felt very familiar, like 2nd edition
familiar. The basic characters are the same. The same six stats are there. Now
there are a lot of non-combat skill checks which we are familiar with from
playing 4th edition. Combat is a D20 roll and add any bonus to hit.
There are various proficiencies for skills and combat. Everyone has one attack
to start and can move. Gone are all the minor, major actions and crazy combat
abilities (so far they are gone who knows what will be there as levels
increase). The armor class is still the higher the better since we are never
going back to lower armor is better. Magic is different and I think better with
new spell preparation, 0 level cantrips and swapping
spell levels. It makes spell casters more than just one and done at low levels.
Melee looked similar with simple swing and roll damage.

So why does it feel like 2nd edition? Simple, you
start with a D6,D8,D10, or D12 in hit points. We were almost wiped out by goblin
archers. We are back from the nigh unkillable heroes
of 4th, to the frail everymen of 2nd. It makes every
battle a risk/reward, just like the days of yore. A single combat can see your
character dead really quick, even if said combat is just a dirty old goblin. The
damage rolls are all just tweaked a bit from the days of D4 daggers, D8 swords
and D6 maces. All the extra combat stuff is gone. It is basic swing and add,
instead of power choices and crazy bonuses. It really sort of feels like a
tweaked version of 2nd edition and not something entirely different
like 4th edition.

The new hotness seems to be this advantage/disadvantage roll.
This involves rolling two D20 and taking the lowest (for disadvantage) and
highest (for advantage) when making all kinds of checks. If you are not
proficient with a weapon you can still use it, but at a disadvantage. This
popped up a couple of times for us. I can see it becoming more common as we get
into the game more. Especially in various combats and with spell effects. I like
this mechanic and welcome the addition.

Every character needs the same amount of experience to level
and that is awesome! The days of each class needing different amounts is gone
and that is good! Plus it seems like they get you through those first few levels
quickly. Hell we only needed 200 XP to reach second level. That is crazy.

There are still a lot of unknowns for this game. We just
played with the pregens so there are character
creation questions. Will there be a real multi-class? What races are available
to play? We did not have any type of saving throw, resistance check or anything
like that, so I have no idea if that is like a previous edition or something
entirely new. Is the starter set spell list all there is right now? Why is the
Monster Manual coming out so long after the Players handbook? What kind of
treasure tables will there be? Will I buy $100 in books only to dump them like
every other edition? Will this last longer than 4th?

I guess I’ll have to grab a Players Handbook and see what I
can answer before I play again. Still with only one game under my belt, I think
this new 5th edition will be a good time. If this is what they
released instead of that mess they call 3rd edition I doubt we would
have ever switched editions. If you are considered “old” and missing classic
AD&D, then grab 5th edition. It feels like hanging out with a
buddy you haven’t seen in many many
years.

Side rant……….

Seriously what kind of mess was 3rd edition
D&D? If you have to patch it like computer software, then there is something
wrong with the game. Sure it worked great on the PC (Neverwinter Nights), For those still holding onto that game version (and the 3.5
D&D/ Pathfinder world) I say leave it and jump onto
5th. It looks and feels like a damn fine, streamlined and fun
system.

Search This Blog

About Me

Just a guy looking to get a different voice in the blogiverse.
I'm not a; must win win win, competitive, math is all proving, interweb lists only works, gamer.
I like a hard fought game, but enjoy losing as much as winning. Just as long as the game is fun.
So, I'm the antitheses of the majority of the interweb/ blogiverse gamers.
Add in that I'm a geek, nerd and dork that is a lover of movies, books and all things society deems uncool.